Programs

Bio

Jerome A. Cohen has been an adjunct senior fellow for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations since 1995. Cohen has special expertise in business and public law relating to Asia, especially China. Since 1990, he has been a professor at the New York University School of Law, where he currently teaches courses on Chinese criminal justice and Chinese business law and frequently teaches International Law—East and West.

Cohen formerly served as Jeremiah J. Smith professor, director of East Asian legal studies, and associate dean at Harvard Law School. He has published several books, including The Criminal Process in the People's Republic of China, 1949–63, People's China and International Law, and Contract Laws of the People's Republic of China, and many articles on Chinese law as well as a general book, China Today, coauthored with his wife, Joan Lebold Cohen. In 1990, he published Investment Law and Practice in Vietnam.

The Cohens lived in Beijing during 1979–81, while Cohen took part in various trade and investment contract negotiations as consultant to the Coudert Brothers law firm and taught a course on international business law in the Chinese language for Beijing officials. Cohen formerly served as advisor to the government of Sichuan Province, China; as chairman of the American Arbitration Association's China Conciliation Committee and to the New York/Beijing Friendship (Sister City) Committee; as trustee to both the China Institute in America and the Asia Society; and as a member of the board of editors of both the China Quarterly and the American Journal of International Law. He continues to serve on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch--Asia and is a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Cohen is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale College (BA, 1951) and graduated in 1955 from Yale Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal. He was law secretary to both U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren (1955 Term) and to Justice Felix Frankfurter (1956 Term). He subsequently practiced law, served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and was consultant to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations before beginning an academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 1959. He moved to Harvard Law School in 1964 and remained a full-time faculty member there until he joined the international law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in 1981. He retired from commercial law practice in 2000 but continues to serve as arbitrator and mediator in international business disputes relating to Asia and as advisor to families of persons detained in China, including Taiwan. He is a member of the bars of New York, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia.

Languages:

Mandarin Chinese (Fluent)

All Publications

Jerome A. Cohen, an expert on human rights in China, sees "enormous progress" in economic and social rights but says deep problems--and sometimes harsh reprisals--persist for those seeking political and civil rights.

Jerome A. Cohen discusses the disappearance of Gao Zhisheng, China's most famous human rights lawyer, and argues that if China is serious about its ratification of the UN Convention against torture twenty years ago and its other international human rights commitments, it is obligated to come clean about Gao's fate.

Jerome A. Cohen warns that, "until President Barack Obama succeeds in restoring America's own reputation for respecting human rights, pressing China for further reforms would only make the U.S. look more hypocritical than it already does."

Jerome Cohen writes that "the mainland already has institutions, including the procuracy, people's congresses and Communist Party discipline inspection commissions, to investigate abuses of the criminal process."

Jerome Cohen writes that the mainland of China is far more open to foreigners today than it was 36 years ago. Yet the Olympics' spotlight confirmed that the country still has dark corners that the Communist Party wants to keep that way.

This August, as the media trumpets the triumphs of the Olympic athletes, the world should also recognise a group of more significant Chinese heroes—the human rights activists whose persecution, prosecution and punishment have become the shame of the motherland, writes Jerome Cohen

Events

The Roundtable on Asia, the Rule of Law, and U.S. Foreign Policy examines the many meanings of the "rule of law" and the role of law and legal culture in the economic growth, institution-building, and protection of human rights in Asian countries. Participants from the government, NGO's, and academia join to discuss the relevance of the rule of law to U.S. foreign policy and what measures the public and private sectors might adopt to foster desired developments.

Press/Panels

On October 18, Jerome Cohen spoke at a 2016 China Town Hall event on the political, legal, and economic ramifications of the present situation in the South China Sea, and analyzed the drivers of geopolitical competition in the region.

On May 18, the OPC hosted a panel discussion to consider how far Chines President Xi Jinping will go in taking steps against not only corrupt members of the Communist Party, but also against all elements of a civil society. Panel members also discussed the implications for U.S.-China relations.

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Featured Press

On October 18, Jerome Cohen spoke at a 2016 China Town Hall event on the political, legal, and economic ramifications of the present situation in the South China Sea, and analyzed the drivers of geopolitical competition in the region.

On May 18, the OPC hosted a panel discussion to consider how far Chines President Xi Jinping will go in taking steps against not only corrupt members of the Communist Party, but also against all elements of a civil society. Panel members also discussed the implications for U.S.-China relations.